Pipa Jing

Pipa Jing (Chinese: 琵琶精; pinyin: Pípa Jīng), also known as Wang Guiren (Chinese: 王貴人; pinyin: Wáng Guìrén), is a fictional character in the Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi. In the novel, she is the Jade Pipa Spirit (Chinese: 玉石琵琶精; pinyin: Yùshí Pípá Jīng), one of three demon spirits summoned by Nüwa from Xuanyuan's Tomb to hasten the fall of King Zhou of Shang.¹

Pipa Jing is introduced as one of the three demons of Xuanyuan's Tomb, together with the thousand-year fox spirit and the nine-headed pheasant spirit. Nüwa orders the three to hide their demonic forms, enter the palace, bewilder King Zhou, and assist King Wu's campaign, while warning them not to harm living beings.¹

In Chapter 16, Pipa Jing visits Daji in Chaoge and notices Jiang Ziya's fortune-telling stall while leaving the city. She transforms into a woman and asks Jiang for a reading, but Jiang recognizes her as a demon and seizes her wrist to keep her from escaping. After a crowd accuses Jiang of killing an innocent woman, Jiang tells Bi Gan and King Zhou that she is a demon and asks that her body be burned to reveal her true form.² Ordinary fire does not burn the body, and in Chapter 17 Jiang uses supernatural fire, after which the body is revealed to be a jade pipa. Daji later places the pipa on Zhaixing Tower to absorb spiritual energy and the essence of the sun and moon; after five years, it regains its form.³

Near the end of the novel, Pipa Jing appears as Wang Guiren alongside Daji and Hu Ximei. The three arm themselves and raid the Zhou camp, but the attack fails. Jiang Ziya then orders Yang Jian, Leizhenzi, and Wei Hu to pursue the three demons, assigning Wei Hu to capture the Jade Pipa Spirit.⁴ In Chapter 97, Nüwa intercepts the demons, condemns them for harming living beings beyond her command, and has them bound and delivered to the Zhou camp. Pipa Jing is then beheaded under Wei Hu's supervision.⁵